A HISTORY OF WORCESTERSHIRE 



already in existence in the early part of the Roman occupation. If we 

 accept the Pitchcroft scorice as Roman, we could add to our conception 

 of Roman Worcester the notion of iron-smelting, though we should be 

 unable to explain why such an industry arose at a place then so unimportant. 

 But we cannot claim for ancient Worcester any reputation as a 

 centre of a potting industry. The kiln found in Diglis testifies only 

 to homely wares produced for casual local needs, such as we meet at 

 hundreds of other sites in Roman Britain, and, as no good potter's clay 

 exists in the neighbourhood of Worcester, we could expect nothing else. 

 The natural earthenware of the district is seen, for instance, in a reddish 

 ware, which is somewhat like modern flowerpot ware. Specimens have 

 been found freely at Diglis, Kempsey and elsewhere, both in and beyond 

 the bounds of Worcestershire. 



3. Places of Settled Occupation : Droitwich, etc. 



To this small town or village at Worcester we have to add a few 

 other instances of what we may suppose to be permanent civilian occu- 

 pation, although our knowledge is in no single case adequate to a proper 

 description. 



(i) Droitwich. The Roman remains at Droitwich appear to lie 

 mostly on the north-western side of the town, near but on the north side 

 of the little river Salwarp, and close to the canal and the railway to 

 Stoke Prior ; they have indeed been found principally in the construc- 

 tion of either canal or railway (fig. 4). In 1847 when the railway was 

 made, definite traces of a dwelling-house were found in Bay's Meadow, 

 close to Bury Hill Farm and the junction of the Stoke Prior Hne with 

 the Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton line, and on the north limb 

 of the former, now disused. These traces comprised two tessellated 

 pavements, foundations in red sandstone, tiles, pottery (including Samian), 

 fibulae and other bronze objects, iron nails, coins and so forth. Both 

 mosaics were much damaged, but a piece of one was secured for the 

 Worcester Museum and shows a geometrical pattern in red, white and 

 bluish grey (fig. 5). East of this site, at Ellin's Saltworks in the Vines, 

 pottery has been found. Coins have occurred at various places along 

 the Stoke Prior railway : they include a few of the first and second 

 centuries, more of the late third and fourth, and range from Vespasian 

 to Gratian.^ Coins of Claudius, Nero, Galba, Hadrian and others, are 

 said to have been found in High Street during the drainage works of 

 1878 ; and I have seen a gold coin of Galba, and a 'first brass' of 

 Claudius from these finds.^ It is also said that vases, coins and tiles were 

 found in making the canal, and that remains of Roman baths have been 

 unearthed with conduits for the supply of water;' but I am told that 



1 Allies, Arch(rological Journal, iv. 73, 146; vi. 404; and Antiquities of Worcestershire, pp. 98, loi ; 

 Journal of the British Archaologtcal Association, iii. 119; vi. I 50; Wollaston Collection of Drawings of 

 Mosaics (South Kensington Museum), No. 72 ; Transactions of the Wore. 'Naturalists' Club, i. 97. 



2 Transactions of the Wore. Naturalists'' Club, i. 282 ; Kelly's Directory. The coin of Galba is 

 Cohen, 286. 



' Bainbrigge, Droitwich Salt Spring (Worcester, 1873), pp. 45, 46. 

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